From hope-driven leadership to the death of SEO, August 2025 brought shifts in how we work and lead. Our monthly trends analysis reveals what forward-thinking leaders need to know.

Coffee badging — showing up at the office just long enough to “swipe in” before heading home — has become a symbol of the disconnect between employer mandates and employee expectations in today’s evolving workplace. Discover what this trend says about the future of work, organizational culture, and how business leaders should respond.

The arrival of GenAI to the tech ecosystem offers endless potential for creative problem solving and innovation in the workplace. However, as explored in the Social Innovation Summit 2024 Breakout Workshop “Using GenAI to Enhance Communications,” hosted by 18 Coffees, its enigmatic nature invites ambiguity, and with it, feelings of overwhelm for potential users.  “It’s hard to apply generative AI consistently because there is no shared definition of what AI is; there are too many applications and implications,” says 18 Coffee’s Managing Partner Caleb Gardner. 

As a community-driven organization, 18 Coffees never passes up the chance to connect with fellow changemakers, and there is no better place to do so than Landmark Ventures’ annual Social Innovation Summit. Here are our top takeaways from #SIS23.

We know AI can’t replace true thought leadership, but can it supplement our efforts so we have more time to spend on our clients’ incredible projects? Let’s find out.

Creating alignment between the demands of workers and organizational strategy will help make any ESG strategy more successful.

Working remotely? Keep these things in mind when planning a workation.